Going digital has played a special role as a catalyst in our economy

An open-source strategy for interoperability has let us build various affordable solutions on top of Aadhaar as a digital base

- SAURABH GARG

The indispensability of digitalization as a foundation for almost every activity in an economy is well acknowledged. Growing internet penetration, affordable data, technological innovations and, above all, the government's thrust on digital infrastructure is ensuring faster delivery, better targeting and improved accountability.

The digital impact: During the period 2014 to 2019, India's core digital economy increased from 5.4% to 8.5% of gross value added (GVA). The digital economy grew 2.4 times faster than the overall economy during this period. The digitally dependent economy accounted for around 22% of the total economy in 2019, as per a Reserve Bank of India bulletin published recently.

The government's emphasis has been on developing digital public infrastructure (DPI), which: (1) ensures public availability of digital components for more participative service delivery systems; (2) triggers market-led innovations; (3) facilitates more affordable and faster on-boarding of services; and (4) aids the development of more transparent systems and thus improves user trust.